OECD E-GOvErnmEnt PrOjECt

E-LEaDErs mEEtinG

mExiCO City, 26-27 marCh 2012

summary rEPOrt

nEw iCt sOLutiOns fOr PubLiC sECtOr aGiLity

2 ©OECD, 2012

CONTENTS

FINAL COMMUNIQUÉ ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

SUMMARY OF THE E-LEADERS MEETING ........................................................................................................................ 4

Themes ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5

Digital citizens do not want to engage with old model governments ......................................................................... 5

Defragmenting governments to improve policy outcomes and reduce the cost of ICT .............................................. 6

Open Data, Open Government, Open Innovation ....................................................................................................... 7

Beyond e-government – supporting better policy outcomes...................................................................................... 8

You can’t measure 21st

century government with 20th

century measures................................................................ 10

Developing a policy instrument on e-government .................................................................................................... 11

An electronic version of this document is available at www.oecd.org/governance/eleaders.

©OECD, 2012 3

FINAL COMMUNIQUÉ

Communiqué of Ms. Ann Steward, Chair of the 2012 OECD E-Leaders meeting; Australian Government Chief

Information Officer and Chair of the OECD Network on E-Government.

27 March, Mexico City

In his opening remarks the OECD Deputy Secretary General Mr. Yves Leterme, stressed that E-Leaders are

expected to maintain the strategic relevance of e-government in a context challenged by the need to:

reorganise at times of budgetary constraints; introduce new services, content and develop new models of

delivery; and face the “governance deficit”.

E-leaders from 20 OECD and partnering countries gathered on 26-27 March in Mexico City for the 2012 E-

Leaders Meeting “New ICT solutions for Public Sector Agility”. The meeting was hosted by the Mexican

government through its Ministry of Public Administration (Secretaría de la Función Pública). Attendees from

business, civil society, social entrepreneurs and academia brought multi-stakeholder views to the lively debate.

Online tools were used to engage with E-Leaders attending the meeting remotely, and Twitter allowed a wider

community to join the discussion.

The discussion covered all aspects of e-government and the challenges facing E-Leaders as a result of rising

economic and fiscal, social and digital governance pressures. Three key themes emerged from the meeting.

Take steps to defragment government. Ministries are mostly structured historically to solve domain specific

problems; ICTs and better information flow across organisational boundaries can help improve co-ordination

and collaboration to achieve better results.

Improve government agility to meet expectations. Ministers and the public expect “always-on” and more

responsive governments; the Internet, mobile technologies, social media and cloud computing can help

achieve greater agility.

Promote Open Data to open governments. The “governance deficit” being experienced by many OECD

countries places pressures on citizens’ trust in government. Open Data is a critical foundation for increased

transparency, inclusion and empowerment of stakeholders, and to build a better evidence base for policy

making.

The meeting proposed a mandate for the OECD to conduct exploratory work on digital governance, and

develop a policy instrument on e-government. A task force of E-Leaders will work with, and support, the OECD

to advance this ambitious agenda. The work in the months ahead will cover two broad domains:

How to increase cost-efficiency, effectiveness and relevance - how do we best use ICTs to do things

better within government?

Towards digital governance - how do we more effectively achieve public policy goals and interact with

wider policy communities?

E-Leaders concluded that this e-government policy instrument will support them in their role to strengthen the

strategic agility of the public sector.

4 ©OECD, 2012

SUMMARY OF THE E-LEADERS MEETING1

Senior officials and political leaders from OECD and partnering countries participated in the E-Leaders meeting

organised by the OECD Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development in Mexico City on 26-27

March 2012. The meeting was hosted by the Mexican government through its Ministry of Public

Administration (Secretaría de la Función Pública). Attendees from

business, civil society, social entrepreneurs and academia brought

multi-stakeholder views to the lively debate. Online tools were used

to engage with e-leaders attending the meeting remotely, and

Twitter allowed a wider community to join the discussion.2

Governments are facing a significant challenge to reduce expenditures as a result of continuing economic and

fiscal pressures. At the same time, advances in technology have transformed the reality of societies; new

technologies are part of people’s daily lives and shape our environment, behaviour and understanding. As a

result, citizens’ expectations for service delivery and to engage with the government are increasing, and they

expect levels of public services delivered through new delivery modes (e.g. on-line, through mobile

technologies) that are on par with best practices in the private sector.

Governments are also facing a “governance deficit” with

increasing evidence that citizens feel disengaged and remote

from the political process, as they are under the impression that

policy responses to the crisis have been fragmented, timid and at

times incoherent3. In this context, E-Leaders are taking the

government closer to the people with the idea that governments

should become increasingly more invisible when delivering services and more visible when it comes to citizens’

engagement. Ensuring society’s active and meaningful participation in the governance of public matters can

lead to public policies that work.

E-Leaders see the potential for existing and new technologies to create greater agility in government

administration, but face many challenges including change resistance by the bureaucracy, the difficulties of

operating horizontally across government agencies and hierarchies, and the need for redesign of organisations

and processes.

The discussion at the meeting covered all aspects of e-government and the

options available for E-Leaders to respond to the economic, social and

digital governance pressures. The present report summarises the

outcomes of the meeting’s deliberations, which will be presented to the

45th

OECD Public Governance Committee meeting (April 12-13, Paris).

1 The summary was prepared by Barbara Ubaldi and Arthur Mickoleit of the OECD Secretariat, and Laurence

Millar, rapporteur to the OECD E-Leaders 2012 meeting and former government CIO of New Zealand. 2

A complete list of participants is available on the meeting’s website, along with background reports and

material: www.oecd.org/governance/eleaders. 3

See Alter, R. (2011), “Public governance: The other deficit”, OECD Yearbook 2012,

www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/3682/Public_governance:_The_other_deficit.html.

@YLeterme on 26/3: Net aangekomen in Mexico stad.15gr. Anderhalf u slapen nu. Om 8u overleg met MinBiZa, dan toespraak over e-government.

@CarlosViniegra on 26/3: @kikin_2004 puedes seguir la conversación en @OECD_ICT y siguiendo #OECD #egov

@OECD_ICT on 26/3: Australians use web as preferred and natural means to contact government - govt CIO @AnnSteward, OECD #egov mtg http://oe.cd/2b

©OECD, 2012 5

THEMES

Three imperatives for governments emerged from the discussions at the meeting:

Take steps to defragment government. Ministries are structured historically to solve domain specific

problems; ICTs and better information flow across organisational boundaries can help improve co-

ordination and collaboration to achieve better policy and service delivery outcomes, and

governments can use ICT to leverage operational gains and reduce transaction costs.

Improve government agility to meet expectations. Ministers and the public expect “always-on” and

more responsive governments; the Internet, mobile technologies, social media and cloud computing

can help achieve greater agility.

Promote Open Data to open governments. The “governance deficit” being experienced by many

OECD countries reduces citizens’ trust in government. Open Government, and open data are

important components for increased transparency, inclusion

and empowerment of stakeholders; it builds a better evidence

base for policy making; and it stimulates innovation and

entrepreneurship in the context of “big data’s” impact on

economic growth.

DIGITAL CITIZENS DO NOT WANT TO ENGAGE WITH OLD MODEL GOVERNMENTS

New models of service delivery require governments to redesign their services, and the supporting delivery

processes, to better meet the needs of citizens, businesses and other public service beneficiaries. It is essential

that e-government services are well designed, to support the long term goal envisaged in many national e-

government strategies, i.e. improve efficiency in service delivery and shift progressively to exclusive digital

delivery for the segments of the population that are ready for it4.

However, participants also underlined the importance to avoid developing new forms of digital divides and

exclusion while exploring the potential of new technologies to develop new content and services and identify

new modes to deliver them. A multi-channel service delivery approach can help provide consistent services

across an internet portal, a Smartphone application, a service centre, and a call centre. Governments have

tried to improve their back offices through enhanced consolidation and integration, and improved data

interoperability which enable to avoid repeating requests for the citizen to

provide the same data. High volume transactions such as registration and

payment can be standardised across all government agencies. Supporting back-

office reorganisation and redesigning frontline service delivery are also

important to enable governments to respond to policy challenges including

ageing, gender and other demographic changes.

Service redesign means that agencies should aim to facilitate

government data into citizens’ natural workflows, in preference to

citizens learning to use complex government workflows. This means a

goal for e-government benchmarking should be to assess the impact of

e-government services in meeting people’s expectations for service

4 Denmark intends to make government services available exclusively through on-line channels from 2015.

@tpardo on 26/3: Chris Vein - "How will we know when we are successful… we’ll be creating jobs."

@UrielCMarquez on 26/3: The information of government must be available in the citizens flow, not the other way. @daeaves

@abustamante_tic on 26/3: www.chileatiende.cl multichannel service network from Chile #oecd #egov

6 ©OECD, 2012

delivery. Citizens can actively participate in business process improvement and design of services5; usability is

important, and governments can explore the value of co-creating with private and non-profit sectors in order

to raise capacity to innovate and rapidly launch new services.

Mobile government services are increasingly important because in

2012 half of the OECD’s adult population will have high-speed access

to the Internet via a mobile device6. M-Government can meet the

significant growth of smart devices and provide greater reach where

mobile phones are more widespread than land-line connections to

the Internet7. Mobile devices for field civil servants can also provide

increased flexibility and effectiveness – by having access to data and connectivity when visiting citizens in their

home or workplace. M-Government opportunities are described in depth in the recent OECD report jointly

published by the OECD and the ITU8.

Many different approaches are used for identity verification and access authorisation, and many governments

are increasingly adopting a federated identity approach that re-uses

citizen information previously collected in other government agencies, or

in some cases, in the banking sector9. Cultural differences between

countries relating to privacy and national security make identity

management a challenging area to harmonise10

. Countries are using digital

ID cards, biometrics, information exchange, credential verification, and

identity interoperability, but each country has a specific legislative framework within which they operate and

control the use and sharing of personal data.

DEFRAGMENTING GOVERNMENTS TO IMPROVE POLICY OUTCOMES AND REDUCE THE COST OF ICT

Delegates reported that they continue operating under severe budgetary constraints and strict fiscal discipline,

while needing to be more flexible, efficient, effective and responsive. E-Leaders work in an environment of

top-down cost reduction with a strong focus on efficiency and in response a majority of participants reported

the creation and use of common ICT platforms for use by all agencies, rather than continuing to use individual

systems. This approach is seen as a way to free resources to drive innovation and find new ways in which E-

Leaders can best use technologies to deliver results, remain up-to date and relevant while avoiding the

digitised citizenry overtaking them in the use of new technologies. Countries would like to develop principles

that underpin such consolidation activities, which would cover both new infrastructure and legacy platforms.

Examples were given where government expenditures on ICT have been reduced through consolidation and

standardization including:

5 A delegate from the private sector described how a government agency created an imperfect online form and

then used live feedback from citizens to improve the design. 6

Most recent data are available via the OECD Broadband Portal, www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband. 7

In Denmark an “app” launched by a bank achieved 20% uptake in the first year. 8

OECD/International Telecommunications Union (2011), M-Government: Mobile Technologies for responsive

governments and connected societies, OECD, Paris. 9

Canada has been a long supporter of a federated identity management approach that leverages the banking

sector’s investments in security, as consumers can use bank cards to secure access to online public services. 10

Google’s representative reported that single sign-on (one user name/password) across all services is a

fundamental goal for the company’s consumer services, but it has proved hard to achieve.

@yuliasedova on 26/3: Про свой опыт рассказали Канада, Мексика, Чили, Корея. А также представители от бизнеса из Google. #egov #oecd

@daeaves on 26/3: Sandwiched between Chile & Google at the #OECD #egov conference while listening to @veinesque talk about US's #opendata strategy.

©OECD, 2012 7

Reassign infrastructure budgets to a single central agency with a mission to standardise11

;

Consolidate hosting and data centre operations, and increase the use of cloud computing, with the

aim of saving a significant percentage of operating costs and better use of capital budgets;

Renovate legacy systems to achieve 25% reduction in operating costs.

Governments need to avoid re-building assets that are already in place elsewhere in the public sector,

including at sub-national levels of government and where it is possible to exploit common capabilities. This can

be achieved through adoption of business models for better internal collaboration and co-ordination across

sectors and levels of government; through the adoption of mandates or legislations that compel agencies to

share and re-use data or systems; or by using financial controls at the

national level (and in negotiation with sub-national levels).

Ministries have been structured historically to solve domain specific

problems – but information can transit organisational boundaries.

Consolidation of information systems can lead to cost reductions, but this

change will require a new way of operating for many government officials. Similarly, moving from a

collaboration stage to a co-operation one will require the development of new skills. Working across agencies

is one of the biggest challenges facing E-Leaders, because there are few rewards and incentives for

collaboration, and often involves the need to manage many risks; this is true for collaboration within

government, across levels of government and outside government (with civil society and the private sector)12

.

Having a strong shared common vision across all sectors of government as a partner in e-government projects

may help break down barriers to collaboration.

OPEN DATA, OPEN GOVERNMENT, OPEN INNOVATION

50% of citizens have less trust in their institutions than before the global financial crisis13

. Governments can

take advantage of the significant increase in the use of Web 2.0

tools by the public to foster unmediated communication, involve

citizens in decision making and facilitate provision of their

immediate feedback14

. This requires, however, an important

change from traditional decision making (seen as slow and

exclusive) to a new approach (aiming for fast, inclusive and transparent). The removal of barriers between

government and the public, and between different parts of government, will transform the way governments

operate. To begin the changes necessary to operate in this new context, agencies are adopting social media

tools internally, for example using wikis to develop policies, blogs for direct engagement with external parties,

citizens, industry and other stakeholders, which promotes internal collaboration.

Public Sector information is recognised as a huge public asset15

. Making reliable public sector information and

data easy to find, easy to use and relevant to the citizens can help empower citizens to create products and

drive innovation that will lead to increased trust in governments and public sector responsiveness. The public

11 Canada has long focused on ICT consolidation in the public sector and created a new Agency – Shared Service

Canada with the mandate to standardise and consolidate IT services to save resources and improve the security

of the government network. 12

Russia, as many OECD countries, has focused on strengthening internal agency collaboration and

interoperability between the large number of local government agencies and organisations. 13

OECD (2011), How's life? Measuring well-being, OECD, Paris. 14

Web 2.0 refers to the range of Internet tools such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube and Flickr, which

enable individuals to publish (“post”) their views and comment on the posts of others. 15

See also the principles laid out in the 2008 OECD Recommendation on Public Sector Information (PSI). The

recommendation is undergoing a review at the moment, which will benefit from insights gained during this

meeting and its follow-up work.

@gov20radio on 30/3: "What's a CIO vs CTO?" After this wk's @OECD e-Leaders meet, @daeaves talks #eGov to #OpenGov http://t.co/X8qb4jrq #gov20.

@mexber on 27/3: Video de la presentación de ayer en #Eleaders de #OECD sobre el Open Government Partnership #egov http://t.co/yqcNghL2

8 ©OECD, 2012

can use government data as a platform for innovation in service development and delivery16

. Data quality can

be improved through wider use by more people, as well as encouraging the community to manage the

integrity of Open Data. Some governments are actively considering building internal systems on top of publicly

accessible data. Government can use shared public sector information to develop better evidence for policy

making.

Many governments have moved beyond the initial stages of publishing

data17

. Standards are now emerging in the data community, so that the

technology needed to analyse large datasets can be built once and reused

many times. Getting data out and having it standardised across jurisdictions,

remains a challenge. Collaboration within and across levels of government

and with the private sector may help develop globally used standards.

The value of open data can be enhanced by the power of e-participation and

citizen feedback, even though representatives from the civil society

underlined that transparency does not automatically lead to increased

participation. Many tools for participation and consultation are emerging18

.

Citizens need the skills and motivation to connect and participate, and to

know that their voice is being heard. It is therefore important to use these

tools on issues that are pertinent and matter. Social Media tools can be used to build a dialog and mediate

political issues; different stakeholders, with different perspectives, can create editorial interpretations based

on the same open government data. 21st

century governments play a role in providing a platform for multi-

stakeholder analysis and dialog, and thereby jointly develop better policy outcomes.

To conclude, participants from government, business and civil society

highlighted the strong economic potential of open data. Initiatives such

as the Green Button, Blue Button and Midata were mentioned as

promising avenues for “smart disclosure”, i.e. governments leveraging

the economic potential of “making available high value data for

purposes other than decreasing corruption in government”19

. Opening

of government data for consultation and contribution by third parties can directly generate business value and

can be a new and complementary source of growth in the context of “big data” developments20

.

BEYOND E-GOVERNMENT – SUPPORTING BETTER POLICY OUTCOMES

The relationships that E-Leaders have with their business and policy colleagues across the government are very

important, as is the relationship between E-Leaders and finance leaders. Recognising that ICT projects are

business change projects, it is critical that business leaders are actively involved and accountable for the

projects. It is important for E-Leaders to strengthen their relationship with senior government leaders, and

16 The United States started to release data into communities, for example the energy community (up to 20

communities now in place). Korea publish more than 200,000 datasets annually; they are not all correct, but

people inside and outside government now work on making the datasets more accurate. 17

Most national commitments under the Open Government Partnership (OGP) include explicit strategies to

harness open data for greater openness and quality of democratic governance. The OGP has more than 50

country members at the time of writing. 18

The Ideas Portal in Chile enables for instance citizens to provide ideas for public sector modernization. 19

O’Reilly Radar, 2012, “What is smart disclosure?”, http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/04/what-is-smart-

disclosure.html. 20

See Government of Spain (2011), “The Aporta project and Characterization Study of the infomediary Sector”,

which outlines the contributions to GDP and employment of re-using public sector information.

@egarciagarcia on 26/3: #egov conference on #oecd - our experience measuring the #opendata business activity in Spain http://bit.ly/HR01Rk (English versión)

@OECD_ICT on 26/3: "it's not only access to data, it's what you do with it", C. Vein of US OSTP shows how open data helps consumers cut energy use #oecd #egov

@smjorge22 on 27/3: Less consultation and more instant feedback loops with society #opengov

©OECD, 2012 9

actively contribute to policy development and drive greater ICT adoption in the public sector. Adapting the

governance framework to sustain better results is seen as a priority.

Politicians are questioning the capacity of the public and private sectors to deliver expected results in e-

government projects. The demand for new skills is evident: effective project and risk management, strong

communication, ICT governance, agile decision making, embracing new technologies, information sharing and

management of public data and inclusive stakeholders’ involvement are some examples. Monitoring of ICT

investment needs to be more directly related to policy outcomes such as better education, economic

performance, safer communities and increased life expectancy.

Working more effectively with innovators and stakeholders outside

government can provide E-Leaders with additional insight that is not

otherwise available, and enables projects to start small, pilot and learn

what works and what does not work, based on feedback from the

community. This can be hard; some sectors, including the major

government IT solutions providers, still think about government in traditional ways, and can present a barrier

to new ideas. E-Leaders should usher in new models and ideas, and grow the skills and competence needed for

effective digital governance.

A future vision of e-government that is widely owned – within government levels and in the wider society –

can secure the required level of buy-in, and some countries have worked for more than ten years to get a

common mind-set for achieving policy goals. Systems such as data.gov and Directgov.uk can act as a catalyst

for change across government; E-Leaders need to ensure that the responsibility for leading change is shared

across many government agencies, not only at the centre21

.

The traditional government model has been to design, build and deploy the final product or service – but is no

longer realistic. Governments are not the sole repository for capacity to deliver high quality public services and

the demand for engagement with the private sector is compelling. Agility

in using ICT and in delivering e-government services (both internal to

administrations and external to citizens or business) was recognised by t

delegates as the cornerstone of change for their role in government.

Agile e-government, and the use of new technologies, can help the public

sector work in a smart way22

. This can result in strengthened national

competitiveness as well as better capacity to face long-term demographic challenges, reform social welfare,

foster green growth and sustainable development. For instance, cloud computing is not just a different

sourcing option, it can also facilitate flexibility and agility in delivering results for governments quickly.

However, traditional government procurement process can get in the way of agile government; and

evaluations based solely on price can deliver poor value. Many governments have continued reliance on large

vendors, and the ability for governments to change and move to new and niche partners with contemporary

skills and expertise is difficult. By dividing work into smaller contracts, government can become more

innovative and agile, and partner with more small local firms. It also enables issues such as open data, cloud

computing, cyber-security and sustainability23

to be integrated into government operations more rapidly.

Finally, it is important for E-Leaders to work with other leaders to build capability across government, so that:

21 The UK adopted a federated model; for example, the CIO for Defence is responsible for the provision of

network services for all government agencies. 22

The number of Smart Work Centres established in Korea is exemplary in this regard. 23

Korea provided copies of GMMI (Green IT Maturity Model Integration) for measuring the sustainability of

government Information Technology.

@LaurenceMillar on 26/3: Chris Vein: Government does not need to do everything – communities can use government as a platform for creation.

@LaurenceMillar on 26/3: Jo Clift (UK Cabinet Office) Govt-Community needs to shift from Parent-Child to Adult-Adult relationship.

10 ©OECD, 2012

Frontline staff has the skills they need for agile service delivery.

Managers can manage data and understand data release.

Directors and managers have formal training in ICT, including on the importance of designing

systems that are secure, resilient, sustainable

All civil servants have the necessary digital literacy skills to form part of a modern workforce

Legal and organisational settings facilitate the use of ICT for greater work flexibility (“smart work”)

Work environments support a range of end-user devices.

YOU CAN’T MEASURE 21ST CENTURY GOVERNMENT WITH 20TH

CENTURY MEASURES

Fiscal pressure leads to reduced public spending on programs and

services, which affects digitisation of services and overall e-

government operations. Initiatives such as consolidation and cloud

computing adoption can help reduce costs, but investment in better

services and digital engagement will occur where E-Leaders are able to

provide evidence of success.

Measurement techniques need to focus on results and outcomes, not activities. This can be achieved by

viewing technology and data as strategic assets held by government, which can be used to create public value

and economic value – e.g. innovation unlocked by opening up government. Value can be used as the main

evaluation criteria, seeking to answer questions such as:

What value has been created?

What policy/strategy/tool combination will deliver best value?

E-Government is becoming an integral component of government policy making and service delivery;

therefore E-Government measurement should be integrated with measurement of policy and service results.

This can be addressed by demonstrating how e-government supported economic growth, social well-being, or

education? The design of the measurement instruments can consider:

How the investment on ICT projects has delivered results;

How transaction costs (for government and for the citizen) have been reduced;

What are the right benchmarks for investment (intra-agency and with the private sector);

How adaptable are the systems, and can they support the required level of agency agility;

What contribution does ICT make to agency performance?

It is also important to monitor and measure major project results. Governments use a range of techniques,

including the use of enterprise architecture to evaluate and monitor e-government projects, and measuring

policy or business outcomes. Standard business case models, governance and evaluation processes are in place

for major investments24

, and major projects are subject to regular oversight25

by government officials and by

experienced private sector reviewers26

.

24 The threshold varies between US$1m and $10m for different governments.

25 Tools such as GatewayTM from the United Kingdom, which is now used by several governments.

26 In Denmark the IT Project Review Board and the use of standardised IT project management and of Business

Case Models are setting the standard for good practice.

@egarciagarcia on 26/3: #oecd conference: #egov benchmark should be linked to policies, be based on #ogov principles, and asses public efficiency gains

©OECD, 2012 11

With Ministerial sponsorship for investments in e-government and ICT enabled business projects it is

essential that the measurement and monitoring process provide Ministers with comprehensive and accurate

information to support decision making processes for individual projects, and the nature of the overall

investment portfolio (the size, risk and benefit profiles of each project).

Governments vary in the intensity of their monitoring, the level of

intervention from central agencies, and the ways tough decisions are

taken to close down a problem project. Some projects should be closed

down, but continue because of an escalation of commitment27

, which can

be particularly pronounced in public sector projects.

Some governments have also applied the principles of Open Government to monitoring and measurement;

results are published as data so that performance measures become a public good. Increased transparency of

government and supplier performance creates better performance and increases citizen trust in the long term

despite short-term adaptation challenges.

Participants underlined that benchmarking user experience and satisfaction of e-government projects should

also take points of reference that are relevant to citizens in their everyday life. This could mean comparing e-

government services to prominent online services, notably those provided by commercial services such as

Google, Facebook and Amazon28

.

DEVELOPING A POLICY INSTRUMENT ON E-GOVERNMENT

The meeting proposed a mandate for exploratory work on digital governance, and the development of a policy

instrument on e-government. A Task Force of E-leaders (TF) will

work with and support the OECD to advance this agenda29

.

Attendees offered to share the work that they have done in their

respective countries to the work of the Task Force, which would be

tightly scoped to ensure the policy instrument meets the needs of E-

Leaders and is linked to the OECD work on e-government indicators.

E-Leaders concluded that an e-government policy instrument would support them in their role to strengthen

the strategic agility of the public sector through the better use of ICT. The aim should be to construct a policy

instrument that assists E-Leaders with their work in relation to two broad and related domains:

Increase cost-efficiency, effectiveness and relevance – how do we do things better within

government? This will focus on the efficiency of government ICT investment, developing policy

relating to issues such as governance, consolidation, standardisation, cloud, legacy renovation, skills

and capacity, procurement, integrated on-line service delivery, and current systems re-use.

Towards digital governance – how do we more effectively achieve public policy goals and interact

with wider policy communities, for instance through the use of new technologies? This will focus on

the potential for value creation through ICT, developing policy relating to issues such as public

service reform, social outcomes (e.g. health, environment, safety and education), multi-stakeholder

engagement, digital inclusion, and innovation through technology.

27 Barry M. Staw: "Knee-deep in the Big Muddy: A Study of Escalating Commitment to a Chosen Course of Action".

Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance 16(1):27-44. 28

As suggested by David Eaves, a social entrepreneur from Canada, in a radio interview in the context of the

OECD E-Leaders meeting, http://gov20radio.com/2012/03/oecd-e-leaders-meeting-eaves. 29

Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, have

joined the TF with other countries having expressed interest.

@TNSBaltic on 27/3: RT @OECD_ICT "share your failures"-say #oecd e-leaders. indeed, almost 100% of #egov case studies analyze success stories. time to re-think?

@CarlosViniegra on 27/3: Termina Eleaders #oecd #egov con dos acuerdos 1. Construir egov policy tool 2. Definir #digitalgovernance

12 ©OECD, 2012

There are significant opportunities for E-Leaders to improve the

impact of e-government, and contribute to the wider

government agenda. E-Leaders can be supported in their

endeavours by a policy instrument created by the OECD with

input from a Task Force of country representatives that will

engage with the Secretariat in a virtual manner30

. In developing

the instrument the OECD Network on E-Government will take advantage and re-use knowledge, experiences

and material from member countries, and will connect with other policy communities in the public governance

ecosystem in order to remain relevant and strategic.

In conclusion, this process will lead to the development of a policy instrument guiding the future thinking of E-

Leaders and enabling them to become better public policy developers and implementers. The development of

a policy instrument on e-government can help achieve cohesion across OECD countries. Similarly, E-Leaders of

non-OECD countries will be able to benefit regardless of the national level of maturity of e-government.

30 E-Leaders will have access to a shared online workspace operated by the OECD.

@OECD_ICT on 27/3: a lake, a rock, a cactus, an eagle, a snake. thx to @SFP_mx & @CarlosViniegra for sharing great Mexican culture to conclude #oecd #egov mtg.